Enabling teachers to inspire and engage students in science, technology, engineering and math.

Resources

Technically Learning's Activity Guides

Technically Learning has developed a number of activity guides to teach engineering, robotics, and programming using different themes to tie each guide together. Our Rubber-band Car Activity Guide is available free for download, and our other guides will be available for purchase in the spring of 2013.

K-2 Engineering Curriculum

Ideal for grades K-2, this set of activities lays the foundation to excel in the physical science fields. Students gain expertise in engineering by designing and building LEGO® models, testing desired outcomes, and critically thinking about their results.

Through a series of hands-on activities, students are challenged to create a sturdy chair, a gravity powered car, a rubber band powered car, and a color wheel powered by a gear train. Students have the freedom to create their own design and conduct tests with changing variables. This activity guide is designed for students to act as real engineers by learning a host of valuable skills, such as effective construction methods and accurate testing procedures, which become building blocks for their future science education.

3-5 Exploring Science Curriculum

Students in grades 3-5 can enjoy this set of activities which relates LEGO®
NXT Robotics to the world they live in. This guide introduces programming to students using the NXT brick and accompanying Mindstorms®
software while at the same time introducing new scientific concepts.

Students can’t help but be engaged and interested in building their own robots. To make these lessons relevant to the real world, activities in this guide use the LEGO®
NXT Robotics kit to cover a wide range of topics, such as alternative energy, sea level rise, and echolocation. Working within these lessons, students relate computer programming to the physical world by designing robots and then creating the code for them. Students learn effective programming, understand the value in testing their robots, and become skilled at troubleshooting problems with their design.

6-8 Mars Rover Curriculum

Use the allure and intrigue of space travel to teach astronomy and robotics to students in grades 6-8. Practice building robots that model the rovers that are on Mars right now!

Designed to reinforce astronomy and science concepts for 6th-8th graders, this unit is intended as an introduction for students that are new to building and programming LEGO® Robotics. Students learn to build wheeled rover robots and program looped behaviors responding to sensors. These activities challenge students to explore the NASA Mars missions, experiment in navigating Mars terrain, and survive in the Mars environment.

6-8 Robot Olympics Curriculum

Robot Olympics Activity Guide
Make math exciting with the help of robots! Aimed at students in grades 6-8, this activity guide will not only help students learn important mathematical concepts, they will also come away with skills useful for today’s technology focused world.

The Robot Olympics helps students in grades 6-8 understand mathematics principles such as: perimeters, estimation, speed and distance calculations, randomization, statistics, and ratios. Apply mathematics to real life in your classroom while teaching iterative design and engineering. Students will find this activity guide fascinating as they compete to build a robot that can measure the perimeter of a complex shape, a car that can drive up a steep hill, or even a robot that can climb a rope straight up! Each activity introduces an exciting competitive aspect while leading students to understand new mathematical principles. This activity guide culminates in a set of Olympic Events including a Tug of War, an Archery contest, and a “BasketBot” that can shoot free throws.

6-8 Robotic Animals Curriculum

How does technology relate to the natural world? In this activity guide for students in grades 6-8, biology overlaps with engineering as students program LEGO® robots as models of animals to learn about their characteristics in nature.

These activities aimed at students in grades 6-8 reinforce biology concepts while building on students' robotics skills. It is intended to follow a more introductory robotics unit, such as the Mars Rover or Environmental Science Activity Guides, as this unit assumes students are familiar with building basic wheeled robots and programming loops. Students design and program many kinds of animals to learn about different biological concepts: a herd of robotic caribou while discussing defensive behaviors, baby sea turtles while learning about instincts, or an iguana robot while learning about ectothermic animals.

6-8 Energy and Environments Curriculum

Inspire students to learn how their actions affect the environment while learning about programming and robotics. Engaging students with LEGO® Robotics is the perfect way to get them thinking about a wider range of scientific concepts.

Addressing pressing topics in today’s world, this activity guide deals with environmental science for students in grades 6-8. This guide begins with activities focused on different kinds of vehicles and how transportation affects our environment. Programming is then introduced so students can design robots such as a solar-powered machine or wind turbine. Students must critically think about how to make the most effective robot, and they must also apply what they learn to think about how to best take care of the environment.